I'd Follow You (a Draco Malfoy story)

Chapter Twenty

"I need you to do something very important, do you understand?" Draco said, his eyes rapidly moving as he watched her. "I need you to stay in your bed tonight. Do not under any circumstances come out of your room." 

The cold feeling Angelina had experienced outside filled her again, her bones seeming to feel ice cold as her breathing stopped for a moment. "I need you to do this." 

"You're doing it tonight aren't you?" Angelina demanded, her eyes widening. She'd hoped against hope that she'd stopped his progress--distracted him from his work. 

Draco's nails bit into Angelina's skin, "I need you to listen to me." 

"No, I'm--"

"Ange, I need you to do this. I couldn't.....Just do this.....I'm begging you." 

Angelina glared at Draco, "do you really expect me to listen to you?! No bloody--"

Draco shook her shoulders slightly, cutting her off, "would you get it through your thick head woman?! There will be a fight tonight and I couldn't live with myself if you were caught somewhere in it."

Angelina scowled, "couldn't live with yourself? I'm supposed to believe that?! Bloody hell, Draco. I can't even tell if you actually fancy me because you basically shut me out of your life!"

Draco hung his head, he began to look more tired by the second, "please.....Angelina." 

"I'm allowed to do what ever I want, it's not like you really care about me. You've pushed me away so much that I'm beginning to think you're just putting up a facade of fancying me! Especially because you haven't--"

His lips were soft, and spearmint. The scent entered her mouth and nostrils as Angelina slowly registered this moment. His hands felt rough from callouses but they were firm and gentle against her cheeks. Angelina took a step closer, putting her arms around Draco's torso as his found her hair. Draco was kissing her, kissing her. Angelina Parkinson was finally having her first kiss and it was with the blonde of her dreams. Butterflies were flurrying around her stomach as the kiss continued, deepening as Draco pulled her closer to him, his hands twisting her hair. 

"Will you listen to me now?" Draco muttered against her lips when they finally broke apart. 

"You've kissed hundreds of girls, why should I take this to mean anything?" Angelina frowned, trying to seem unfazed by it all, but her insides were moving around restlessly--wanting more. 

A low noise rumbled from Draco's throat as he closed his eyes, a noise of agitation, "because I fancy you."

Angelina stepped back, a smile on her lips that disappeared moments later, "I still don't want to do this." She paused, scuffing her shoe against the polished ground before looking into the grey orbs that were narrowed, "'why do you have to do this?" she whispered calmly. 

Draco took her hands in his and let out a raspy breath that shook his entire body, "he'll kill my parents and then me....and I....." He looked at Angelina as words failed him. 

"Let's go to Dumbledore, he can help!" Angelina pleaded desperately. "I'm not going to let you--"

Draco cupped her cheeks, his eyes looking crazed and mad as he pressed his nails into her cheeks, his quick change in emotions evaporated the butterflies and left a chill in her spine, "don't you think I've thought of that?! He can't help me, he can't save me, no one can." 

Angelina flinched as the nails dug deeper into her skin, "Draco....you're hurting me." 

Draco jumped away from her like she was covered in roaches, he looked apologetic as Angelina rubbed her sore face. "Just.....please, Ange. Stay in the Common Room tonight. Stay there and never come out for anything." 

Angelina was silent, regarding her choices: force Draco to stop traveling down this horrible path, go to Dumbledore alone, or....well her mind couldn't think of any other paths as she regarded the boy in front of her. She remembered when he looked strong and held himself up as if he mattered, but now he was sickly and frightened. "And where will you be?" She knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it. Needed it to be confirmed. 

"Sometimes I think you're so stupid...." Draco said with a heavy sigh.

"There's no need to be such a jerk," Angelina muttered. 

Draco closed the distance between them, shaking her shoulders harshly, "if you hate me, then you'll stay away. You'll be safe. That's what I want. That's all I've ever wanted!"

"No I won't...." Angelina whispered. "No one is safe, Draco. If you do whatever it is you're doing, we're all doomed. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to try and protect--"

"Protect?! What is there to protect?!" Draco rolled up his left sleeve so that the dark and menacing ink shown almost too brightly against the ghost white skin, Angelina flinched away. "I'm marked and I have a mission that will be completed tonight that if I fail, I'll be murdered immediately. What is there to protect?" 

His eyes were big and wavering as Angelina opened and closed her mouth, feeling that she'd completely lost him. What was there to say? He was damned and there was nothing left that she could do. 

"I'm already damned, Ange. There's no saving me," his voice sounded tired, his body looked as if he were about to collapse, as his eyes pleaded his point. 

"Just stay with me, we can run away--go into hiding until this is all over! You don't have to do this, Draco," Angelina's voice was barely above a whisper as it shook from the tears that were in her eyes. Her hands snaking through her hair and pulling the strands slightly, she was losing her sanity and grip on the situation. "I'm only trying to help." 

"Hide until all of this is over? Do you hear yourself right now? You're thinking like a child, you don't understand the big picture," Draco hissed. 

"I don't want to lose you," Angelina said lamely. "I finally get to tell you how I feel, I finally get to kiss you and now its like...nothing mattered," she shrugged her shoulders, "and maybe it doesn't since it appears that Voldemort is going to turn this world upside down in a matter of hours." 

Draco stood frozen to his spot, his body tense with clenched fists, Angelina sniffed while mentally begging him to speak. But the silence dragged on after her comment. How could she be so casual about everything? How can she say his name so simply, like it doesn't scare her? 

"Just....listen to me, you'll be safer this way, " Draco pleaded. 

"I shouldn't have to do this," Angelina crossed her arms.

Draco pressed a palm into his eye and nodded, "I know. But I need you to." 

"Why?" Angelina tried to keep her face neutral. 

Draco's expression was one of complete and utter exhaustion, "for the millionth, bloody time, because I care about you. Because you're my girlfriend." 

Angelina slowly met Draco's gaze, "really? This is the first I'm hearing of this." 

Draco's eyes narrowed, his expression changing to anger, "with you constantly avoiding me recently I didn't think I was," Angelina whispered. Draco's expression only darkened. 

Draco raised an eyebrow as Angelina hung her head, and scowled at her feet, this wasn't how she pictured this to happen. She always thought it was supposed to a romantic thing: you find someone you fancy, you tell them and hope they have similar feelings, and if they do you go on a date, then you kiss them, and finally you announce that you're a couple. None of this lined up with what Angelina and Draco had been through. Angelina wanted to point this out, to object to how he confessed, but she couldn't bring herself to argue with someone who looked close to death. "So would you just listen to me for once?" He pleaded one last time. 

 Both of them knew this conversation was futile, both knew that Draco would find Angelina fighting her way to get to him. 

"I already told you, we go to hell together," Angelina whispered. 

~*~*~* 

Can anyone guess what's about to happen? 

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